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Lady Chablis turns XXX: March 9 birthday bash in Savannah

The Lady Chablis will return to Savannah this weekend to celebrate her birthday. (Photo provided)

Pick up Thursday's new, expanded issue of Do for more conversation with the Lady Chablis. dosavannah.com

Light the candles, baby.

On March 9, the one, the only, the Lady Chablis will return to Savannah to celebrate her birthday with two over-the-top performances at Club One.

“That means more cocktails, more champagne and more of my own concoction,” she says. “That’s the one time I get paid and can get as drunk as I want to. I’m so looking forward to it.”

The special guest star for the evening will be Cracker, Chablis’ Maltipoo.

“He’s so handsome,” she says.

On March 11, the Lady Chablis will turn 56, but she looks much younger.

“My secret is telling my age,” she explains. “If I was to act my age, it would be different. I don’t know how to act my age. I feel like I’m in my late 20s, but I think my body’s telling me, ‘No you’re not.’”

If she doesn’t have any appearances during the day, Chablis wears no makeup.

“I’m in jeans and tennis shoes,” she says. “But there’s no way I can be incognito. People recognize my face, voice or the way I walk.”

Born Benjamin Edward Knox in Quincy, Fla., Chablis became an overnight sensation after the publication of John Berendt’s book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” She was one of several colorful Savannahians it profiled. Then, in 1997, Chablis played herself in the movie version, which was directed by Clint Eastwood and starred Kevin Spacey and John Cusack. She also wrote a bestselling book herself, “Hiding my Candy: The Autobiography of the Grand Empress of Savannah.”

The Book and The Film changed Chablis’ life dramatically. “In a good way, it made me famous,” she says. “It got me to places I never imagined I would go.

“I got to meet certain people, I got to work as a model, I opened at the Kennedy Center and headlined a jazz tour. I got to write a bestselling book and be in a movie.”

But there was a definite down side.

“It took away my securtiy and privacy and trust,” Chablis admits. “Also, it put me in the limelight where I had to wear that label ‘drag queen.’ I’ve never been comfortable with that label.

“That sort of brought me out of the closet. I had to come to terms with that.”

It’s the reason Chablis left Savannah. “It was way too much,” she says. “Everything happened so fast.

“I couldn’t go to Big Lots or anywhere. That person behind me might be a fan but it could also be some redneck following me. Not everyone is into the Lady Chablis.”

It was in junior high school that Chablis began performing. “We had plays and I would get into those and enjoyed them,” she says.

“When I finished high school, I had the chance to go to Atlanta,” Chablis says. “I saw some performers and decided I wanted to do that, especially if I got paid for it.”

For a time, Chablis entered pageants and contests, winning several titles and crowns. “They don’t mean that much to me,” she says.

“It was part of getting into the system, the entertainment business. If you had a title, you could ask for more money and get more bookings. But I’m not really the pageant kind.”

The exposure did help launch her career. “I won a contest, and from there I got a job and joined the bar/club scene,” Chablis says. “It was a career, a profession that I could make money from.

“I never planned to do anything like that. I never planned to be an actress or singer.

“I thought I might be a dancer or a gymnast or a minister,” she says. “That’s what my grandmother wished.”

Chablis’ grandmother was her rock in a storm, the woman who raised her. “I called her the First Lady,” Chablis says. “I lost her about 6 to 7 years ago.

“She was the first person to tell me what I was. She had to explain what being gay was. She explained she knew I liked to wear dresses.”

The conversation came about when Chablis was in the sixth grade and a teacher called her a homosexual. “It scared me,” she says. “I didn’t know what that was.

“My aunt was also a teacher at the school. She really laid into him.

“My grandmother said a lot of people wouldn’t understand me,” Chablis says. “But she made me promise that people had to respect me.”

It was a good lesson. “I want people to remember, parents to remember, that when a child is born, it may possibly be someone like myself, so be prepared for things like that,” Chablis says. “If you don’t like it, just remember that great things can happen.”

Before her grandmother passed away, she got to see Chablis on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“I went home and said, ‘At 4 p.m., I’ve got something I want you to see.’ When she saw me, she said, ‘That’s my baby, that’s my favorite grandbaby!’”

On Oprah, Chablis appeared with Berendt, and also got to perform. She considers it a highlight of her life.

“There are so, so many memorable things,” Chablis says. “One time, I was onstage performing when this little hand came up.

“I reached down to get the tip, and it was Demi Moore! She tipped a $100 bill and asked if she could come into my dressing room. We became good friends.”

Despite her success and renown, there are things Chablis would like to do that she hasn’t gotten around to. “I would like to parachute out of a plane,” she says. “That’s on my bucket list.

“I would like to go to Hong Kong. I would like to own Club One. I would call it ‘Lady and Daughters’ instead of ‘Lady and Sons.’”

Chablis is a fan of Paula Deen.

“I want to challenge her to a cook-off, with the money to go to charity,” she says. “I’m trying to get people involved in that. I think it would be so cute.” A good cook herself, Chablis loves to eat. Her favorite recipe involves chicken with turnip and mustard greens and cornbread dumplings.

At some point, Chablis intends to return to Savannah for good.

“I really miss living in Savannah,” she says. “I think I will eventually retire there. I want my family to be able to enjoy Savannah.”

In the meantime, she and the rest of the world will have to settle for her regular visits to perform at Club One. “I get paid good,” she says.

“I come for the tourists. My shows are tourists and 80 percent are over the age of 30.”

Two shows are held on the same date, one at 7 p.m. and another at 9.

“They are not for the faint of heart,” Chablis says. “They’re not vulgar, but I do use flights of fantasy. I talk about everyday things and there’s nothing nasty. It’s fun and very glamorous.”

Over the years, Chablis has changed in the ways that matter, but not in the ways that do.

“I did what I did then, and when I knew better, I did better,” she says. “There are no regrets. I want my legacy to be ‘Two tears in a bucket, mother____ it.’”